Marvel’s Avengers, Six Months Later

Marvel’s Avengers was so plagued by buzz as inertia. Before the game was released, it was defined by a chaotic rumble of muddy messages, sky-high expectations and the little thing called the Marvel Cinematic Universe. After the launch, the conversation shifts: would it be astill no success like no Destiny, go the disappointing way of National anthem, or somewhere in the middle country? Six months later, this is where things stand.

• In 2017, Square Enix announced a partnership with Marvel to make games based on Marvel franchises. Crystal Dynamics, hot of the Tomb Raider restarting, the development will lead to a game based on Marvel’s enormous popularity Avengers franchise. Eidos Montreal (Deus Ex: Mankind Divides) would strike.
• Crystal Dynamics pulls back the curtain Marvel’s Avengers by Square Enix’s E3 2019 Presentation, announcing a release date of May 15, 2020.
• About that demo. Fans noticed that something was … off. The five playable characters – Black Widow, Thor, The Hulk, Iron-Man and Cap – have a remarkable resemblance to their counterparts on screen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and even mocked like a bunch of Hollywood Chrises. It looked like Crystal Dynamics was trying to copy a facsimile of a fictional universe that already exists. Where was Hawkeye too?

• At the New York Comic Con in 2019, Crystal Dynamics revealed that Kamala Khan (who you may know as Mrs Marvel) would be the sixth playable character in Marvel’s Avengers. It would turn out to be the driving force behind the game’s story.
• During much of 2019, it was clear that Marvel’s Avengers would be a single-player game with collaborative elements, and that it would have games-as-a-service elements, a la Destiny. The E3 presentation certainly looked neat. But it was not clear how exactly all the different parts would come together. A video from late October turned things upside down clarity. Bring the outside meal, baby!
• Two weeks in 2020, Square Enix slow down the match until September 4th.
• While cities across the country have undertaken to (eventually) remove the Confederate monuments, the official Marvel’s Avengers Twitter account mailed a short advertising spot with a damaged Captain America statue, flanked by drones that flashed some very police corpse lights. The account quickly deleted the tweet and apologized.
• Oh, there’s Hawkeye! In July 2020, Crystal Dynamics revealed that Clint Barton, aka The Guy Who Totally Bailed On Infinity War, would be the first DLC hero for Marvel’s Avengers. A week later, Crystal Dynamics announced that Spider-Man would also join the roster – but only for the PlayStation version. Oh, yes, and he would be free. Console-exclusive DLC, people: it’s struggling. It also has makes no sense.
• During August 2020, Crystal Dynamics held a series of open betas. Kotakusee Mike Fahey gave the game a spin, but was not impressed, not entirely inspired by the same old-same-old battle and repetitive mission structure. To zip around like me. However, Marvel and Iron-Man were pretty cool.
• Launched just before the game, one enterprising individual gel the real faces of MCU actors on the in-game models of Marvel’s Avengers. (Warning: Do not click on the link if you do not want nightmares in the strange valley.)
• A third character after the launch! Crystal Dynamics announced that Kate Bishop, rather than Hawkeye, would be the first hero of the game. No hard feelings between mentor and mentee, right?

• During a stream preparation, Crystal Dynamics family play that Black Panther also joined the Marvel’s Avengers grid at some point. Follow the tragic death of Chadwick Boseman, who portrayed the hero in the films, Crystal Dynamics changed the initial plans for the stream.
• Marvel’s Avengers officially released on September 4, 2020, but those who picked up the luxury edition could play on September 1st. With his hands on the full game, Kotakusee Mike Fahey finds himself more impressed than he was with the beta, mainly because the story missions of the game – anchored by a scene-steal Me Marvel– Be creative, engaging, and a real pleasure for any Marvel fan.
• The ghost of microtransactions, which has basically intruded on every living game to some degree, not turned out almost as intrusive as prospective players feared.
• The other big cloud hangs over Marvel’s Avengers before launch: “How bad is the grind?” This too, not turned out almost as bad as many expected. Of course, with all the different currencies in play and the benchmarks, there was of course some expectation. But the campaign was, surprisingly, the focus, and you could play Marvel’s Avengers as a one-off single player game. The time was there – but only if you wanted it. What a pleasant surprise.
• Those who wanted the grind, of course, quickly came across issues. Less than a week after the launch, players in the playoffs noticed that outside drops at the end of certain high-level missions sometimes dropped a low gear, or worse, no gear at all – despite the fact that the same missions had a chance to fall from top equipment. Crystal Dynamics acknowledge the issue over the loot falls and a correction is announced, but note that the items fall at the highest level “as intended.”
• Marvel’s Avengers is not based on or even related to the Avengers movies. Easter eggs, however, are an honest game. In one of the game’s multiple hubs (more on the annoying design choice), players are discover a neat reference to Avengers: Age of Ultron. Who is worthy now?

• The game is plagued with a series of minor issues, from poorly balanced battles to the occasional infinite loading screen, but few things goggle players more as the computer-controlled teammates. AI Hulk, Cap, and co. would attack enemies if you needed a revival and would fail to attack enemies when you were absolutely still alive. Earth’s most powerful heroes? Certainly. Earth’s smartest heroes? Not at all.
• Crystal Dynamics drops the first big patch for Marvel’s Avengers on a Friday night in mid-September. It addressed a lot of the above minor issues, but did not change any of the more fundamental issues (specifically a lack of new content or engaging activities).
• Then, crickets, for a while. As players maximum grids and endlessly playing the endless repeatable missions, enthusiasm for the game waned. In early October, more than a month after launch, the Steam game base dropped below 2,000. Crystal Dynamics tell Kotaku that the game will become exciting again, citing the then-upcoming releases of Kate Bishop, Hawkeye and new mission types as examples of content coming to the content-starved game. Meanwhile, the most enjoyable we had then was in an in-game chair.
• In mid-October, Crystal Dynamics dropped a second major patch. Like the first, it consisted almost entirely of quality of life adjustments. However, there was one major addition with the inclusion of a new hub: the SHIELD Substation. In addition, the patch also made it so that factions were not relegated to specific hubs. (If you want to collect the amount of one faction before the update, you have to load in one hub, collect all your assignments, load in the other center, collect those assignments, etc. The update made it so that you could do all the busy do work in one place. Dear relief.)
• In October 2020, Crystal Dynamics slow down the Kate Bishop DLC from that month to an unspecified date. Furthermore, the next generation versions of the game, which is scheduled to launch with the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X / S in November, have been pushed to 2021. Crystal Dynamics cited problems with a work-from-home framework as a reason for the delay.
• The Kate Bishop started an operation in early December – that is Marvel’s Avengers-speak for “main mission” – called, unforgivable, “AIM take” The expansion was quite nice, at least for a bit, thanks to an engaging, if short, storyline and the sheer awesomeness of Kate’s powers.
• It took months, but in December Crystal Dynamics made this so that Captain America could use his shield to break Iron-Man’s laser beam.
• Ysterman receive a suit that makes him look like a dead eye. It’s purely cosmetic – and just as scary as it is hilarious.

And there are things true. Marvel’s Avengers undoubtedly more excitement in the weeks before the release than in the weeks after, but that is not the case. On March 18, the Hawkeye DLC –which looks completely bonkers—Come with the following versions. Also keep in mind that there are more Superheroes than grains of sand on earth. It is a bottomless pit to use from and can serve as the basis for one serious heroic return.

But these superhero stories always have a big bad thing, and also for Avengers, it’s not MODOK or Thanos or another purple face. This is the grind. If the Hawkeye expansion hits, the game creaks will receive a major overhaul, switch from a linear experience point system to an exponential one. It will start for all characters ‘around level 25’ – the halfway point – who actually do nothing but give more grind to the game. Crystal Dynamics explained the change by saying that it can help ‘new players’ adapt to the game’s skill system. Now, all the game needs are those new players.

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